Meeting the required standard or being good enough for a particular purpose.
This phrase comes from early boxing matches where a line was literally scratched in the dirt or drawn on the ground. Fighters had to 'come up to scratch' at the beginning of each round, meaning they had to step forward to the line to show they were ready and able to continue fighting.
The boxing origin makes this phrase particularly interesting because it originally meant being physically capable of continuing a fight, but it evolved to mean meeting any kind of standard. The 'scratch' line was both a starting point and a test - if you couldn't make it to the line, you weren't fit to compete!
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